


Huh.

by Skyepilot



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Angst, Complicated Relationships, Developing Friendships, F/M, First Kiss, Flirting, Framework, Love Confessions, Male-Female Friendship, Older Man/Younger Woman, Recovered Memories, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-16
Updated: 2017-04-16
Packaged: 2018-10-19 15:58:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10643199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyepilot/pseuds/Skyepilot
Summary: Getting one in before 4x18.  Coulson saves Daisy from being brainwashed by HYDRA and his memories come back. Definitely getting Jossed.





	

He doesn't ask, but she can tell by the look on his face.

There are more memories. He's wearing them. Along with a question they've never answered.

She avoids his gaze (they're fighting off Nazis, it's not that hard to), until she seeks him out, later.

The base is quiet now in a way theirs never was, except that one stranger-danger moment where she was alone with Ward.

It's unsettling, but at least he looks like the Coulson she knows. Poised to start a discussion that she's practiced in the past.

What feels like were years ago now.

One she never really got around to settling, though circumstance decided that for her.

"Did your memories come back?" she asks, breaking the silence between them.

Letting out a sigh of relief, he starts to follow where she's leading.

"Yes."

She nods and watches his eyebrows draw together, his gaze fixed somewhere on the table.

"I tried," he starts, shifting his posture between one foot and the other. "And I'm not sure if it was cowardice that made me stop, or-"

"Coulson," she says, almost relieved. "The things you've done here...they're not your fault."

"On the other side," he clarifies, eyes on hers now, lips pursed together, he straightens. "When I met you, you were looking for your family. You needed something."

"I found them," she answers. "And...a home." She wants him to understand. How much that means to her. And his part in it.

Instead, he's giving her a look she might almost take for pitying.

"I had to keep my distance," he explains. "So that you knew you earned it. Because, you did."

"Should I be worried?" she huffs, trying to lighten the mood, but also this isn't even up for debate as far as he's concerned. He wanted her to lead SHIELD.

"Maybe." He sounds guilty. "About some of my decisions along the way. Not anything you've done."

"This is because I said you're like family to me," she breathes out. "Right?"

"No, "he replies immediately. "Yes. You're the most important...I think today made that clear."

"Coulson, our connection-"

"I know," he cuts her off, getting more animated. "And, I tried, I thought it was what you wanted. Then...today, and, none of this is real!" he adds in frustration, gesturing with his hand around them. "But it _is_ real. If I lose you, that's real."

Leaving him, she crosses the room until she gets to the window, and looks out of it. The way that the landscape looks the same, but she can't escape the feeling that it's all wrong.

"I never asked you to be my father," she warns him over her shoulder.

"But, I could be." He says it like he's thought all of this through before. "I'm old enough."

She decides to give him a moment, before turning around to see him leaning down against the table again, watching her.

"So what?  What does that even mean?"

And just like that, with a shrug, she crosses back over to him "It's hard enough just trying to be your friend. Do you think I'd risk _all_ of that, just to-"

"And I'm so sorry for not trying harder," he apologies. "Instead of doing what seemed...easiest."

"Wait," she tells him, shutting her eyes, thinking back. Touching on a moment in the past. "You flirted with me."

"When?" he asks quickly, his head jerking back.

"When we first met. I mean, 'Lola can keep up?'"

He stares at her for a long moment, his eyes starting to narrow, the outline of a smirk on his lips.

"You were flirting with me, trying to get inside SHIELD. I knew that, and I let you," he reminds her, smirk now firmly in place.

"Really? You never flirted back?" she asks, crossing her arms at him, trying not to laugh at the absurdity of it.

"Only when I couldn't resist," he finally confesses, hiding an embarrassed smile and rolling his eyes at himself. "Okay, there might have been some flirting."

"What's the big deal, then?" she shrugs, because it doesn't make sense. "You saved me today, and...your dad feels took over."

"It's...not like that." He goes quiet, and she can practically hear him swallow.

"Huh," she replies, making the silence between them sound even deeper.

"Huh," he repeats after her, but very blunt sounding and hiding his face.

"That's...new," she mentions, as she leans to peek at the horrified expression building on his face.

"When we get back to the other side, I'll step back, whatever you need. I don't want to get in the way."

She can't help but smile at him, at the idea he thinks he's somehow in her way.

He's never been in her way from the moment they met. He's been so much more to her, she can't even find a category to describe how she feels.

"That's really nice of you to offer, but I won't need you to do that."

"Of course," he nods. "You can still leave SHIELD, too," he says, like he doesn't really want that, but will agree to it. "I wasn't trying to suggest you have to stay."

"Coulson, hold on." She puts her hand to her forehead and rubs it, trying to figure out a way to say this that sounds right.

"I don't want you to go anywhere. _I_ don't want to go anywhere. If anything, all of this has made me realize that...I need you."

"Huh." He seems a bit mystified and charmed all at once, his eyes searching her face as though to make certain. "That's good, right?"

"And the team," she goes on, as his face falls a bit, and she puts a hand on his shoulder. "But, I wouldn't have this without you. I don't want this without you being a part of it."

"You're suggesting that...we need the team."

"And that the team needs... _us_?"

He stares at her for a moment, like he's arrived at something. If she still can read his expressions right.

"Thank you."

"For what?

"For being my friend."

"You're welcome," she replies, letting her hand trail down his shoulder, giving his arm a gentle, encouraging squeeze, then, hesitating. "Not bad for a schoolteacher."

He chuckles a little, out of relief, probably.

"I'm actually a really smooth spy, or so I've been told," he answers, and she thinks she can see a tinge of red on his cheeks.

"Who makes his own soap," she adds, pursing her lips together and raising her eyebrows at him. "Super smooth."

She laughs at him, and he gives up and shrugs at her, until she pulls him into a tight hug.

It feels good to have him here with her. She thinks about the handful of times they've hugged like this before.

In gratitude. In solace. In promise. In fear.

This might be the longest one yet, but she isn't ready to let go. It makes her wonder, even after all of this time, exactly what to call this.

There's movement in the corridor beyond, and she feels him start to pull away, like on instinct, protecting this moment of intimacy between them.

From outsiders looking in.

It makes sense. That he didn't want people to see her differently for him. To be a liability to her.

Things are different now. In the Framework and outside of it.

She puts her hands on the front of his shirt, and pulls him back into her, pressing her lips to his mouth, intending to kiss him quickly, but then she finds that she likes the way this feels, too.

His soft mouth and even softer hands skimming over her body. Like she should be handled carefully, but definitely handled.

It's when her imagination starts to get carried away (when she imagines his hands, and his mouth, in other places), that she breaks them apart.

 _Ahem._ There's work to do, after all.

"What was that for?" he asks, a little out of breath, and definitely blushing now. Even she can tell that in the dim light.

She wonders if hers is just as obvious.

"For saving me," she says with a smirk, and pats the front of his shirt, refusing to let herself look at his mouth again.

"Huh."


End file.
